7.3 Church History

It has been well said that people make history, but they do not make the history that they choose. All human beings act in particular times, in particular places, and for a variety of different reasons. The aim of the Church History department is to teach students to understand the way in which human action is shaped by historical, social, economic, cultural, and theological concerns; and by so doing to allow the students to understand better their own positions as those who act in context. Though we live in an anti-historical age, the Church History department is committed to helping students realize the liberating importance of having a solid grasp of those historical trajectories which shape, often in hidden ways, the life of the church in the present.

To that end, the Church History curriculum enables students:

To recognize the ambiguities and complexities of human history

To examine themselves in the light of the past

To engage with an epistemologically self-conscious historical methodology

To see how the church’s testimony to Christ has been preserved and articulated through the ages

To recognize turning points in the history of the church

To identify major types and paradigms of Christian vision in societies past and present

To be well acquainted with the Reformed heritage

To recognize global patterns in the spread of the gospel through missions

To cultivate a modesty with regard to their own times and cultures by setting these within the perspective of the great sweep of church history

To be inspired by what they learn to proclaim God’s grace to today’s world